Title: A Small DetourRating: PG-13Word Count: 1,156Pairings/Characters: Sam/Jess, Willow, XanderTimeline: Pre-series for Supernatural, season 4 or 5 for Buffy.Summary: Sam and Jess are on their way to Las Vegas and somehow end up in Sunnydale.Disclaimer: I don't own anything associate with Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural. They belong to Joss Whedon and Eric Kripke.Notes: Written for the second weekly challenge at spn_btvs. The prompts were anything that had to do with St. Patrick's Day (beer, gold, Ireland, you get the idea) and I used beer for this one. Enjoy and feedback's always welcome!

Somehow, the fact that they haven’t even left California makes this even worse than it could have been. Because somehow, they ended up in Sunnydale, California instead of heading towards Nevada.

He could feel Jess’ eyes on him as they drove through the small town and pulled up in front of a motel.

“We’re lost, aren’t we?” she asked.

“We are not lost, Jess.”

Jess snorted and he turned to find her raising an eyebrow at him. “Oh, really? And what would you call this?”

“A detour.”

She sighed. “Sam.” It was all she said and all she needed to say as he shrugged.

“We’re taking the scenic route, that’s all.”

“We’re lost,” Jess repeated.

“We’re not lost,” he insisted, looking out the window and fighting back a sigh of his own.

They were so lost. Not only were they lost but Jess was not in a good mood.

Not that Sam could blame her. Somehow, over the course of the trip, they’d managed to take a wrong turn or something and had ended up bickering about it for the last couple of hours.

How they’d done that, Sam couldn’t say. He was pissed at himself for getting lost in the first place. He’d never gotten lost before. As a matter of fact, growing up, he’d been the one to play navigator for Dad and then, when he could drive, Dean. But apparently a couple years of staying in one place and he sucked.

Dean would never let him hear the end of it if he ever heard about this. This was why Sam was never going to tell him.

“Sam, didn’t you say you used to travel a lot?”

He knew where this was going. After all, he’d just gone over it in his own head. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.” He turned his head to find Jess studying him.

“Did you guys just never come to California?” she asked. Sam made a face at her.

“Very funny.”

Jess threw her hands up. “Well, I’m sorry. But you insisted that we wouldn’t need to print out directions because you were usually the one giving directions so you wouldn’t get lost. And now we’re lost, Sam.”

It was a bad idea to say it but Sam couldn’t resist. When moments like this happened, he thought of it as his inner Dean. “No, we’re not. We’re in Sunnydale. See? Not lost.”

“Sam! This is serious!”

Sam let out a breath. “I know. It’s just, we’re already here, we need gas, we’re both tired, and we should really stock up on food for the road tomorrow.” He put a hand on her knee. “We’ll leave early in the morning and make it to Vegas in plenty of time to get settled in at the hotel and rest before dinner.” He smiled and ducked his head to meet her eyes easier. “If it’ll make you feel better, we can go find someplace open all hours of the night and print out the directions.”

Jess let out a light laugh. “I’ve been a real bitch the last few hours, haven’t I?”

Sam’s smile widened. “Nah. You were a joy to be around.” He laughed when she smacked him in the shoulder, shaking her head.

“You’re just so funny, Winchester.”

The smile turned into a grin. “You love me,” he said as she fought to keep a straight face.

“Sure, my life would be empty without you.” She grinned back at him and shoved the door open. “Now I believe you said something about finding a place to print out directions.”

He groaned. “You’re really going to make me follow through on that, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “Damn right I am.” Her voice turned teasing. “If I don’t, we’ll end up in Arizona.”

Sam really wished he had a beer right now. He licked his lips as he realized he could practically taste it and sighed.

Directions first, beer later.

~*~*~

The man behind the desk had told them that the university library was open late throughout most of the week. How he knew this Sam didn’t know and didn’t care. All he cared about was getting the key to their room so they could go and the guy could stop staring at Jess as if she were a full course meal.

“That guy was creepy.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah.” He glanced over at her. “I’ll be the one that checks us out tomorrow. Alone.”

“Oh thank God,” Jess sighed. “Because not only was he creepy but if he called me little lady one more time, I was going to punch him.”

He grinned. “I kind of wish I could have seen that actually.”

“So violent.”

Sam ducked his head again, grabbing the keys. “I am not.” Anymore.

~*~*~

The sight of the library made Sam grin and Jess shake her head in amusement. He shrugged. “What?”

“You’re a geek,” was all she said, the look on her face taking any sting out of the words.

“Yeah, yeah, come on. Let’s find the computers and go.”

Ten minutes later and it was Sam who was shaking his head at Jess who’d found a book she liked and gotten distracted. He smiled as he continued to walk.

“And she calls me the geek,” he muttered.

“So what kind of demon is this again?”

Sam froze when he heard the question. A part of him prayed he hadn’t heard right while the other snapped to attention, already listening for details.

“The kind that could eat us and still have room for dessert?”

“Very funny, Xander. I meant the name.”

“Sorry, Wills, you’re on your own for that one. My job was to give you the description of what it looked like and tell you what it could do so that you could figure out what it was and then Buffy could kill it.”

“And she ran into it last night?”

“Yeah. They beat each other up and then it ran away.”

“Okay, then let’s get searching.” There was a pause. “Meaning I’ll do the actual searching and you’ll keep me company.”

They had it covered, Sam told himself. Obviously they had it covered if they were joking around while they researched.

He did wonder who Buffy was and how she had managed to not only beat up a demon, but survive the encounter.

Sam shook himself. That wasn’t his world anymore. He’d left it behind for normal and so he took a few steps back and then deliberately made some noise as he walked towards the computers. The two at the computer glanced up and nodded at him and he noted the way the brunet shifted so that he blocked the screen even as the redhead gave him a small smile.

He nodded back at them and sat at the computer, sighing as he pulled up the site he needed and pushed away thoughts of demons and hunting.

AWWW! Why does it end there? That was the start of a beautiful story. I mean, I loved this quicky, but... :( Jess and Sam are so cute, and her reaction when she gets sucked into what Sam does would be great... and... yeah. Sorry, no one's online so'm reading things new to me. Hee.